It is common to put trust in your doctor and health care professionals. Doctors and health care professionals spend years going through school and training to earn that trust. When a medical professional breaks that trust, you may have the grounds to file a medical malpractice case. To win a medical malpractice case, you need to do a couple of things right.
Key #1: Act Quickly
With a medical malpractice case, success is all about speed. With a medical malpractice case, you need to bring the case forward before the statute of limitations expires.
When that expires can be a little tricky. In some states, the clock on the statute of limitations starts when the injury was discovered, and in others, it is from when the specific act of malpractice occurred.
Taking into account when the injury is discovered or when the complications are discovered, the window for actually filing a lawsuit can be really small, which is why if you think you have a case, you need to act quickly.
Key #2: Get Paper Evidence
Next, word of mouth and verbal testimony is great, but if you want to ensure you win, you need to get some paper evidence. You need to get your medical records immediately, and you need to have someone with experience analyze the records and the information with the records. The heart of your case is going to rest in the paper evidence.
Key #3: Understand Legal Negligence
Third, it can be helpful to understand legal negligence. This will help you have a better understanding of your case. Legal negligence is about not living up to the duty of care that is required of a medical professional. Making a breach of duty that you can pursue legal action for has to be an action that other medical professionals with the same training and experience would not make in a reasonable situation. You will need to show a breach of duty and legal negligence if you want to win your case.
Key #4: Bring in the Insurance Company
Finally, you will want to make sure that the insurance company is brought into the lawsuit process early on. Letting the medical provider's insurance company know about the lawsuit will trigger a review of the situation from the insurance company's perspective.
The insurance company will often work with your attorney to settle, as they don't want the case to go to court.
If you want your medical malpractice case to go forward, you need to contact an attorney as soon as you think you have a case. Work to get paper evidence, and be sure you understand legal negligence and breach of duty to understand better what you are trying to prove. Bring in the insurance company to work towards a settlement.